History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
and, without reflecting, that Italy must sink into a province of
Constantinople, they fondly hailed the restoration of a Roman
emperor as a new aera of freedom and prosperity. The deputies of
the pope and clergy, of the senate and people, invited the
lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and
to enter the city, whose gates would be thrown open for his
reception. As soon as Belisarius had fortified his new conquests,
Naples and Cumae, he advanced about twenty miles to the banks of
the Vulturnus, contemplated the decayed grandeur of Capua, and
halted at the separation of the Latin and Appian ways. The work
of the censor, after the incessant use of nine centuries, still
preserved its primaeval beauty, and not a flaw could be
discovered in the large polished stones, of which that solid,
though narrow road, was so firmly compacted. 73 Belisarius,
however, preferred the Latin way, which, at a distance from the
sea and the marshes, skirted in a space of one hundred and twenty
miles along the foot of the mountains. His enemies had
disappeared: when he made his entrance through the Asinarian
gate, the garrison departed without molestation along the
Flaminian way; and the city, after sixty years’ servitude, was
delivered from the yoke of the Barbarians. Leuderis alone, from a
motive of pride or discontent, refused to accompany the
fugitives; and the Gothic chief, himself a trophy of the victory,
was sent with the keys of Rome to the throne of the emperor
Justinian. 74
71 (return) [ The Decennovium is strangely confounded by
Cluverius (tom. ii. p. 1007) with the River Ufens. It was in
truth a canal of nineteen miles, from Forum Appii to Terracina,
on which Horace embarked in the night. The Decennovium, which is
mentioned by Lucan, Dion Cassius, and Cassiodorus, has been
sufficiently ruined, restored, and obliterated, (D’Anville,
Anayse de l’Italie, p. 185, &c.)]
72 (return) [ A Jew, gratified his contempt and hatred for all
the Christians, by enclosing three bands, each of ten hogs, and
discriminated by the names of Goths, Greeks, and Romans. Of the
first, almost all were found dead; almost all the second were
alive: of the third, half died, and the rest lost their bristles.
No unsuitable emblem of the event]
73 (return) [ Bergier (Hist. des Grands Chemins des Romains, tom.
i. p. 221-228, 440-444) examines the structure and materials,
while D’Anville (Analyse d’Italie, p. 200—123) defines the
geographical line.]
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